Former Morelos Secretary of Government Samuel Sotelo Salgado categorically denies any relationship with the alleged criminal, César Alejandro Sepúlveda Arellano, alias 'El Botox'. This came after the publication of journalistic reports linking him to a property of his where a detention was allegedly carried out in 2018. Media outlets substantiated the alleged connection with documents from the Secretariat of National Defense, which state that the first detention of Sepúlveda Arellano occurred on August 28, 2018, at a home located on Cataluña Street, in the Maravillas subdivision of Cuernavaca, registered in the Public Property Registry in the name of Sotelo Salgado. According to the military documents, the apprehension was carried out in compliance with a judicial warrant for the crime of homicide, and at that time, Sepúlveda Arellano was identified by federal authorities as the alleged leader of the criminal group 'Los Viagras,' with a presence in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán. The reports are part of the Defense Ministry's internal archives contained in emails leaked in 2022 and made public. In response, Sotelo Salgado issued an open letter stating that he 'does not know and has never had any link or communication' with the person in question, and claimed that the publications have generated 'unfounded speculations' that have damaged his public image and personal environment. In his letter, Sotelo Salgado details that the property in question was acquired in 2014 and that in 2018 he decided to lease it through a real estate advisor, who was in charge of administration, promotion, and formalization of the contract. He states that 'I never had personal, telephone, or any kind of communication with the tenant or those who inhabited the property.' He also specifies that the lease agreement was signed in July 2018 with witnesses and under previously established conditions, and that the person who signed said contract 'does not coincide with the name of the one who is pointed out as detained and who is called 'El Botox'.' As part of his disassociation, the letter is accompanied by photographs of the lease agreement signed with a management company, which — according to him — subsequently sublet the property to a person other than César Alejandro Sepúlveda Arellano, in order to prove that there was no direct relationship between the owner and the person mentioned in the military reports. Sotelo Salgado maintained that a 'media lynching' has been generated and called on the media to act with 'objectivity and restraint' in handling the issue. Finally, he reiterated that his relationship with criminal matters has been only in the exercise of public functions, by stating that 'the treatment I have had with crimes and criminals has only been as a public servant,' in his performance as a public defender, judge, and magistrate of the Judicial Power of Morelos.
